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That of weaving plain woollen is somewhat different; but the

difference is so insignificant, that either a linen or a silk

weaver might become a tolerable workman in a very few days. If

any of those three capital manufactures, therefore, were

decaying, the workmen might find a resource in one of the other

two which was in a more prosperous condition; and their wages

would neither rise too high in the thriving, nor sink too low in

the decaying manufacture. The linen manufacture, indeed, is in

England, by a particular statute, open to every body; but as it

is not much cultivated through the greater part of the country,

it can afford no general resource to the work men of other

decaying manufactures, who, wherever the statute of

apprenticeship takes place, have no other choice, but either to

come upon the parish, or to work as common labourers; for which,

by their habits, they are much worse qualified than for any sort

of manufacture that bears any resemblance to their own.